Beyonce Goes for Global Domination With 'Run the World (Girls)' (Video)

With the end of the world rapidly approaching, at least according to some, Beyonce's 'Run the World (Girls)' comes just in time for the songstress to take charge of a dying planet or, you know, at least save the ever-ailing music industry.

All hyperbole and joking aside, "Mrs. Z" premiered her hotly anticipated new track and accompanying video -- which, truth be told, does have apocalyptic imagery -- on 'American Idol' on Wednesday, May 18.

Directed by Francis Lawrence ('Water for Elephants'), the cinematic piece features a side of Beyonce we haven't really seen before. Immediately after the televised broadcast, the video premiered on VEVO.

"It's definitely riskier than something a bit more...simple," Beyonce told Billboard.com earlier this week. "I just heard the track and loved that it was so different: it felt a bit African, a bit electronic and futuristic."

And it is all of those things. But while Beyonce originally claimed that she had invented a new genre of music for her upcoming album, '4,' she has since clarified that the release, including this new single, just represents a departure from the mainstream R&B path she's taken in the past.

If 'Run the World (Girls)' is any indication of the rest of the new album, she certainly is headed into the future with a homemade fusion that cuts across R&B, pop, rock and even electronica. Indeed, it's a brave new world for her. And she's ready to run it.

The "song" (if you can call it that) is lame. I expect this crap from Rihanna, but not from the Queen B. You can clearly tell that they digitally put her head on top of another dancers body in the beginning of the video when she is wearing the black fur outfit. What a sad mess.

Baahahahaha, music? yes...song? Nah, not even close to a song which would include actual,intelligent lyrics in the form of sentences. Whole family watched this train wreck and we all couldn't stop laughing at the typical herky-jerky, Beyonce moves with the obvious zero talented, lyrically challenged track. She would be best to take alot of time off to re-invent herself before ever putting another CD out and put this CD in the trash where it belongs....Absolutely Terrible

I thought it was just me but I notice that they clearly but her head on someone elses body to do the dancing as well. What a piece of crap. Beyonce has always been over rated to me anyway. I have seen her in concert and never thought she had enough talent to be on stage alone. The group made her look better.